


Return to Sender

by Moniposa



Category: Superstore (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Drunk Sex, F/M, Gen, Unplanned Pregnancy, post golden globes stuff with some rewriting, two-sided pining, what if it was JONAH'S BABY
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-06
Updated: 2018-07-05
Packaged: 2019-06-06 02:12:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15184487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moniposa/pseuds/Moniposa
Summary: When you're drunk, you might accidentally call someone, or confess your feelings to your best friend. What doesn't normally happen is sleeping with one of your closest friends and getting pregnant. Which is exactly what happens between Amy and Jonah after the Golden Globes party.Amy is just full of luck these days.





	1. One Cloud

**Author's Note:**

> i just.............marathoned superstore and i thirsted...................for an au.............

It starts with avoiding eye contact.

When they inevitably pass by each other in aisle seven, dealing with questions about whether or not it’s worth paying the $1.75 for the extra ply of toilet paper, they keep their heads down and refuse to acknowledge the weight that sits between them. Amy purposely avoids the home decor and tech aisles that Jonah’s usually assigned and instead visits Glenn’s office far too often. Jonah’s thankful for the lack of contact and her constant teasing, but he can’t help it when his heart falters every time he looks out of the corner of his eye and sees brown hair with blonde streaks, but it isn’t the specific type of hair he’s looking for.

It was a few weeks since the Golden Globes party at Amy’s place – what Mateo said was in shambles just like her life. As upset as she was with him and the other people who agreed with him, Amy knew deep down they were a little right, but _only_ a little. It was true that after the divorce, she felt that the routine was something she simultaneously missed and felt so free from. It was terrifying to think about; that the person with who she had a child and shared her life with for so long suddenly just didn’t exist anymore. Every morning, her hands pressed into the empty space of her bed to the right of her and every night, stared at the empty pillow next to her for far too long before sinking into a dreamless sleep. She wouldn’t admit it to anyone, but it felt really lonely.

The party eased that feeling for at least a few hours. Dina tried really hard, especially eating the obviously undercooked chicken even though she was a self-declared vegan and bird lover. She convinced Glenn to stay a little bit longer by letting him and Jerusha have sex in her bedroom (she made a mental note to burn her mattress later that week and thanked _God_ that Adam was self-centered enough to have a “recharging room” (he called it the Adam Pad-am (gross)) with an extra bed). Having so many people in her house made it a little easier to breathe, at least, until they all left at the end of the disastrous night.

At least, everyone except for Jonah.

After the whole bird fiasco, Dina decided that she’d rather be at home to get everything out of her system and so Jonah said that he’d stay behind to help her clean up. Both of them had been drinking far too much, Amy especially. Every space that Adam touched her in that house became heightened, and she wanted something, _anything_ to erase it. Somehow, it came from Jonah.

They were both laughing so much, hitting so much furniture and got tangled in each others’ kisses. When they reached the guest room, them having sex felt inevitable. Amy couldn’t believe how _right_ it felt to have his hands on her back, her thighs – he made her feel far more drunk than wine ever could.

But now when Amy’s eyes accidentally locked on his hands restocking band-aids, she had the urge to look at anything else but him.

They knew that, at least for a little bit, they needed to avoid each other. Amy still had to deal with the divorce looming over her and Jonah had Kelly; kind, and funny, and always-smiling Kelly. He didn’t think when he first kissed Amy, and everything else after that. He felt awful for cheating on this woman who had showed him nothing but care. His only comfort was that it was only a one-time thing with Amy, and it was obvious that it was never going to happen again. At least, that’s what it felt like when they tried to make everything go back to normal, or as normal as it could be. Still, he didn’t know what to do with his sweaty palms when her hand would accidentally brush his.

Recently, Amy had started to feel bloated, and like she wanted to throw up in the mornings, making her late to morning meetings. Even though she was positive she and Jonah had used protection, she learned early on that condoms can break, manufacturers can make faulty ones, or sometimes they just don’t work. Getting the Supercloud pregnancy test kit from Tate was the hard part, especially since he kept on taunting her with it like a human with a bone does with their dog. Snatching the test from it after stomping on his foot, she sped-walked to the bathroom and counted the seconds after taking it, hoping that she was just overreacting.

After waiting the recommended time on the box, Amy squeezed her eyes shut, still sitting on the toilet seat before opening one eye to see one cloud  on the test. Negative.

She let go the breath she didn’t know she was holding in, relief flooding her. _This is great,_ she tells herself, _I don’t need another baby right now, and Jonah’s with Kelly. This is . . . just fine._ Even though she has to repeat the words to herself over and over again, they ring false to her somehow. If she was really being honest with herself, there was this twinge of hurt in her stomach she doesn’t know what to do with.

A few days later, she and Cheyenne sit on either side of a distressed and very pregnant Dina, trying to give her some reassuring words about going through childbirth.

“It just felt like some bad cramps.”

“It was– it was like, nothing, it just feels like you’re pooping but with a lot more blood and screaming,” Cheyenne says halfheartedly, looking up at Amy for approval. _Is this toned down enough?_ Amy can almost see her telling her through blinking morse code.

“Listen, about a month ago I thought I was pregnant because I missed a few periods, gained some weight–”

“Oh no way! You were gaining weight? I didn’t even notice,” Cheyenne cuts in with some nervous giggles. Amy pauses to narrow her eyes at Cheyenne for a few seconds before going back to the story.

“What are you blind? Look at her,” Dina retorts tactlessly.

“Anyway, I remembered how amazing it felt and just think it’s really cool that you’re carrying this life inside you, like you’re a god!”

“I guess,” Dina sighs.

“When I took the Supercloud test and only got one cloud, I kind of felt a little sad that I wasn’t going to be having a baby.” Amy finishes, hoping that she had assured Dina enough.

“Wait a second, you took a Supercloud test? Did you not read the memo? The manufacturer recalled them for giving a bunch of false negatives. The midwest is swimming in blooper babies.”

What?

Amy’s heart stops for a second, the blood draining out of her face and it feels like the floor is suddenly way too close.

“Excuse me,” she whispers, trying to get out of that store as quickly as possible.

No, no, no, no way, no way! She couldn’t be pregnant with _Jonah’s_ baby of all things! She had to find some actual, trustworthy pregnancy tests before she jumped to the conclusion, but it was the only thing that made sense – the morning sickness, the weight gain, God, how couldn’t she have seen it before? What if Dina hadn’t told her about the false negatives? How terrifying would it have been if after a few months she was suddenly big with a whole ass baby? She didn’t even want to think about it.

 

*

 

She’s sitting inside the empty break room with Dina and Chey, a row of four pretty pregnancy tests staring up at them with multiple variations of pink positives. _Congratulations!_ They all seem to be saying, as if the person who was buying it only wanted nothing but good news to come from it. Amy felt so clammy, the air sucked out of the room entirely.

“I know this is probably bad timing, but this is why you read the memos,” Dina murmurs into the silent room.

Neither Amy nor Cheyenne respond.

“Well, look at the bright side – you said you were sad when you found out that you weren’t pregnant and now you are.”

“Yeah, I was obviously lying, no one wants to be pregnant it’s awful,” the words tumble out of Amy’s mouth without any sort of filter. The tests continue to stare her down.

“Oh I know! Let’s make a list of the people who could be the baby’s father.” Cheyenne stands up in a flurry, starting to scribble out a list of people on the whiteboard underneath the underlined phrase “Sex With Amy”. _Alex, Tate, Adam._

Amy sighs. “I know who the baby’s father is. I’ve been taking it slow with Alex, and I almost had sex with Tate but he started to do push-ups in the bedroom before he fell and got embarrassed, saying he had a meeting before leaving. It was two a.m.”

“What about Adam, then?”

“God, no – he came over to pick up his last few things and I couldn’t even look at him. It’s Jonah’s,” Amy adds, without any flourish.

It feels like all of the air’s been sucked out of the room.

“YOU HAD SEX WITH JONAH?” Dina and Cheyenne shout simultaneously, leaning in close to a jittery Amy.

“Oh my God, could you be any louder? I don’t think the workers at Target heard you.” She buries her head in her hands, hoping that it’ll make them stop staring at her. It sure as hell doesn’t.

“When did this happen? Was that why you guys were avoiding each other for a little bit?” Cheyenne’s eyes are absolutely twinkling. Amy all of a sudden wants to throw up.

“And he’s still with Kelly? That Great Value Elf son of a bitch.” Dina looks like she’s so close to losing her mind.

“It happened after the Golden Globes party, after everyone left. We were both feeling really sad, and really drunk, he called me sexy – we were laughing and it just . . . happened.” Every word makes her feel like garbage.

Dina and Cheyenne look at each other for a split second before they look back at Amy, their faces entirely serious.

“He called you sexy?” Chey’s nose crinkles.

“Are you gonna tell him?” Dina leans in just a fraction closer.

“I don’t know! I just – I don’t know if I even need to tell him, you know? What if I just never tell him, and I grow old and just die.” Amy offers up the solution like it’s . . . even plausible.

“Amy, I think he’s gonna notice when you start looking like a massive balloon that needs to be popped.” Chey’s voice is too rational, even with the ridiculous analogy. Amy sighs.

“I didn’t think I would ever say this, but Cheyenne’s right. Not unless you try to move far away, maybe into the towns in Brazil and change your identity, allowing you to compete in underground boxing matches without anyone knowing who you actually are, trust me.” Dina sounds far away and it’s Cheyenne and Amy’s turn to stare at her silently.

“You know what? I’ll tell him, let me just – just figure it out on my own. Please, don’t tell anyone. Especially you Chey.”

“What, me?”

“Yes, and I really mean it, not even Mateo,” she keeps going in between Cheyenne’s exaggerated gasp. “If there’s one thing you couldn’t gossip about for the rest of your life, let it be this.” Amy’s completely serious and doesn’t turn away until she gets a slow nod from Chey.

 

*

 

When Amy asks Dina and Cheyenne to give her some time before their breaks finish, they comply and leave the room as quickly as they entered. Amy sits in silence for a few minutes before suddenly  getting out of her seat and grabbing the notepad and pen sitting on the countertop. A phone call sounds way too impersonal and she’s not sure she’s ready to actually tell him in person. This would help her organize her thoughts. If anything, having something organized and with a clear objective helped her clear her head, if only for a little bit.

_Jonah,_ she writes in blue ink, _this is just a hypothetical question, but how would you feel is someone were to tell you that you were gonna be a father?_ No, he would see that from a mile away, even if he dropped out of business school. She crumples the paper and puts it in her vest pocket.

_Heyyyyyy, who has two thumbs and your baby inside of her?_ No, no – God, that’s awful. Who puts six ‘y’s in a Hey anyway? She rips out the sheet and shoves it into the pocket again.

_. . . you know your Russian accent is really annoying sometimes and no one says Chernobyl all the time, even though the main reason for this letter is about the pregnancy._ Nope.

_Hey baby –_ Absolutely not.

_Jonah,_ she writes again for the tenth time, _sometimes when I hear you make your corny jokes, or see you smile, I don’t remember what my life was like before you. If you have a baby, I know they would be just a great as you are. It might happen sooner than you think –_

The pen swerves off the page as the door to the break room opens. In a hurry, she snatches the paper off of the pad and stuffs it into her vest pocket.

“Hey Amy,” Sandra walks in, pushing a cart with an assortment of fruit with ugly faces. “I was trying to do something for the baby shower and I was wondering which one of these fruits look most like a baby?”

“They all look horribly disfigured Sandra bye,” Amy replies in a rush before speed-walking into the the hallways. When she passes by a trash can, she takes out the notes from her vest before sighing and tossing them into the bin. It was stupid anyway. Who sends a letter to the person that knocked them up? This isn’t the 1950s.

In her hurry to throw them away, she doesn’t notice the one note that falls out of her pocket before she tosses the rest. Turning back to the main floor, she tries to forget everything that happened in the past hour.

At least, that’s what she’d hoped.

It’s only a few hours later that Amy feels she’s about to lose her mind. Everything feels too bright, too loud, and she’s afraid that if even one customer approached her, she would immediately throw up on them. She rushes off the floor, covering her mouth in an attempt to hold her words, vomit, and word-vomit inside until she can clock out and go home. Jonah’s only a few feet away and he notices the way she keeps her head down and quickly leaves. He stares a little longer than normal, worry seeping into him.

“Stupid, stupid,” she murmurs under her breath as the machine refuses to take her time card.

“Amy? Amy, are you okay?”

She looks up in relief as Dina walks towards her and puts her hand on her back.

“I don’t know if I can stay here for another minute, Dina! It feels like everything’s too much, and whenever I see _him_ I get all twisted inside and this stupid machine won’t take my goddamn time card,” she says finally in exasperation, almost on the border of tears.

“Okay, okay, let’s get you out of here,” Dina replies comfortingly, pushing her towards the exit doors. She pauses briefly before going back to the time card machine.

“Sorry! Sorry, it just feels weird not clocking out.” She goes through the process of clocking out for twelve agonizing minutes before they both walk out of Cloud9.

 

Dina and Amy sit in the car in silence. For the past hour, they were driving around with Dina making suggestions about going to the abortion clinic, even clicking off her phone’s navigation to drive towards the nearest one. Amy looks down at her hands, folded over her lap and when she blinks, she can see a smaller pair resting on top of them. They look a little paler than hers. When she blinks again, they disappear.

“Is it okay? If I take a few days off? Just until I can . . . think through this.”

“How long is a few days? Because Brett coughed up a lung recently and I don’t think we can –”

Amy looks up at Dina. She isn’t sure what the other woman sees in her eyes but she nods. Amy gives her a small half-smile before getting out of the car.

“Do you think you’re gonna tell him? Either with the letter, or in person?”

Amy pauses, holding the car door open. “I don’t think I can solve this with paid postage.”

 

*

 

They don’t notice Jonah who walks in just as they make their way out of the doors. He pauses, not sure what to make of what happened.

He hopes that Amy is okay. They were assigned close to each other and he noticed that she didn’t come over to mock the way he folded pants (he was so set on the way he did them made it crease so much less). In fact, every hour that passed she looked more and more pale. Sometimes she would stare off into space for a long time before jolting herself out of it and going back to her clipboard before starting the whole thing over again. The only time he’d seen her so scared was during the tornado, and even then he didn’t remember seeing her so sickly. He was about to go up to her and ask her if there was something wrong when she bolted from the floor all of a sudden, refusing to look at either the employees or the customers.

He stares after Amy and Dina in the hallway, not sure as to whether or not to hunt them down. He couldn’t exactly just _leave_ , but then again he really wanted to know what had her so spooked.

Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a crumpled piece of paper on the floor. The paper crinkles in between his fingers just as he’s about to throw it in the trash can next to him when he’s suddenly compelled to open up the paper. He thinks it probably has some numbers or counting of inventory when his eyes fall on his name written at the top of the paper.

_Jonah,_ it reads, _sometimes when I hear you make your corny jokes, or see you smile, I don’t remember what my life was like before you. If you have a baby –_

“Oh hey! I was looking for you.”

Jonah loudly shoves the paper into his vest pocket, his heart beating a mile a minute as he sees Kelly walk towards him, her smile stretching from ear to ear.

“Hey, you,” he forces out, his smile not totally reaching his eyes. When she’s close enough, he leans in to give her a quick kiss on the lips. “What are you – what are you doing here? Not that you can’t be here, or anywhere, it’s just that you’re still on your shift and I was just . . . wondering?” He forces himself to stop stumbling over his words. _God, why are you so nervous?_

Kelly squints her eyes at him for a second before answering him: “I was just coming back here for my break, silly – are you okay?” She looks up at Jonah and rubs his arm comfortingly.

“Right, right yeah of course. I’m fine! I need to do something real quick but I’ll meet up with you in the break room.” The smile he gives her is genuine this time as he begins to leave the hallway, making sure his steps look normal.

He rounds the corner and waits for the break room door to open and close before he takes out the crinkled piece of paper in a hurry, reading the rest of the letter and the pen scribble that follows the last word.

He might be . . . a father?

Jonah pinches the bridge of his nose, trying to organize his thoughts. No, there’s no way. But the letter definitely insinuated it. Who wrote it anyway? He couldn’t recognize the handwriting so he was at a loss. _Maybe not entirely_ , he thinks to himself slowly, peeking back towards the break room. He could see Kelly through the window, blowing on the top of her ramen cup. Was Kelly pregnant? Jonah looked back at the letter and thought about how she was talking to him a few minutes ago. She didn’t seem all that different, worrying about him like she always does. She doesn’t _look_ pregnant, but maybe that’s what she wants him to think. Maybe her acting all normal is supposed to throw him off the trail and stop him from snooping.

Jonah blinks and looks again. Maybe.

Or maybe not.


	2. Two Clouds

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> love u superstore, here's some tender times

Two days pass by and Amy doesn’t clock in. In fact, she doesn’t show up at Cloud9 at all, and it feels strange to not have her breathing down everyone’s backs. For Jonah especially, everything’s just slightly off. He notices it the first day she isn’t there. He doesn’t know exactly how to describe it, but it’s like all of the stuff in the store’s been moved an inch to the left and only Amy can set it right. Or something corny like that.

When four days come and go, Jonah starts getting suspicious. It isn’t like her to miss so many days and as much as she sometimes can’t stand Cloud9, it’s always good to be around people who . . . who . . . just, good to be around people.

It doesn't make sense for her to be gone so long without an explanation, and he tells Garrett this.

“I don’t know man, doesn’t it seem a little strange to you?”

“What? That Amy’s been gone without telling anyone and you feel like you have to be Sherlock Holmes and investigate like she’s been murdered? It’s just another day at Cloud9, don’t you think?” Garrett replies, deadpan.

Jonah rolls his eyes. He’s about to retort when he spots Cheyenne making her way to the break room. If anyone would know what’s up with Amy, it’s her.

“Time to play Sherlock,” he says before moving from his spot behind the announcements counter before making his way over to her.

“Hey Chey,” he says, trying to be as nonchalant as possible.

“Oh hey Jonah! What’s up?” Cheyenne’s hair is up in a ponytail today as she fiddles with it mindlessly.

“Nothing much, just restocking, helping out Garrett with announcements, thinking about why Amy hasn’t been here in a while. You know anything?” Jonah says the last part so quickly that Cheyenne has to blink a few times.

“Amy? Like, our Amy? I don’t know anything why would I know anything?” She covers her mouth as a nervous giggle escapes her. Chey’s brows knit together as she apologizes to him with her eyes.

Now it’s Jonah’s turn to blink. “I was just – I thought since you know Amy so well, maybe she might’ve told you why –”

“Jonah I’d love to talk and finish answering the rest of your twenty questions but I have a really short break today and I really gotta eat the lunchables that my mom packed for me so I’ll see you later ‘kay thanks bye.” Another bubbling, nervous laugh escapes her as she almost runs into the break room, shutting the door behind her. He thinks he hears it lock shut.

“O . . . kay.” Jonah murmurs. His hand falls against his vest pocket and he feels the crinkling of paper inside of it. He takes it out and opens it up for the hundredth time, reading the words over and over again like a poem. He still hasn’t been able to figure out the writing and it feels weird that he was the one that found the paper with his name on it. He must’ve been the one that had to find it, there’s no other explanation. But him? Being a father? It just didn’t make any sense.

 

*

 

On the fifth day, Amy comes back wearing a flowy peach blouse and the Cloud9 vest with the nametag “Cheryl”. The past five days were simultaneously torture and freeing. She had asked Adam if he could take on Emma for the next few days because she was really sick and didn’t want her to catch whatever it was she had. As much as she dreaded being alone with her thoughts, she needed the time to think about her next steps. After a lot of throwing up, laying down on the bathroom floor, skimming through TV channels, and talking to her succulents, she came to the decision that she had to tell Jonah, as much as it completely scared her. She would let him decide what to do – whether he wants to be a part of the baby’s life or nothing to do with it. The one thing she didn’t want to do at all was have an abortion. Not that she had a moral grievance with it, she just didn’t want to do it.

She also made peace with the fact that whatever Jonah chose, she wouldn’t be upset with him.

When she steps back into Cloud9, she has the overwhelming urge to walk out of the store, the town, until she got tired. But she has things she needs to do, so she makes herself take baby steps as she walks deeper into the cave of the beast.

It’s not bad at first, everyone says hi to her and how it’s good for her to be back. She responds normally, which is a surprise, but she’s not about to complain. She passes by the jewelry section where Cheyenne is working and stops to chat for a little bit. Cheyenne asks if she’s okay and she replies that she’s fine, but doesn’t allow her to probe any further. It’s fine, for the best, really.

After working for a few hours, she feels like she’s gotten back into the flow of things. She hasn’t seen Jonah all day but she knows that seeing him is inevitable. About a half hour passes by when she spots him go into the back with the extra stock. Now’s as good of a time as any, so she braces herself before making a beeline after him.

When she moves past the plastic separators, she sees him in a sea of plastic bags, stuffing them into the indoor dumpster. He pauses when he sees her come in and the warmest smile spreads on his face, like this is the first time he’s seen the sun after living for months in darkness.

Oh? That vomiting feeling came back all of a sudden.

Amy tries to calm her erratic heartbeat when she approaches him. “What’s all this?”

“It’s nice to see you too! Are you okay? You were gone for a while.” Jonah makes movements to get out of the pile, but doesn’t move closer to her.

“I’m fine, really. I just had some personal stuff to deal with – stuff with Emma. But everything’s fine now.”

Jonah’s eyes search hers for what feels like an eternity. Amy thinks he’s satisfied with what he finds because he goes back to the mountains of plastic bags.

“To answer your question, this is all the party stuff. You know how crazy gender reveal parties get.” He tosses one of the bags into the dumpster.

“Yeah,” Amy replies softly, the smallest smile gracing her face.

“There was so much Chianti,” he starts off, putting on his fake Italian accent that they practiced with each other a while back. “and the mozzarell’, and the unlimited bread-a sticks.” Jonah chuckles as he tosses another bag.

Amy’s silent as she moves the slightest bit closer to him as he talks. Her heart feels like it’s stuck in her throat – God, how did she end up falling in love with him? As messy as she was that night of the Golden Globes, she could never forget how _right_ it felt to be with him. She just didn’t know if the baby would mess that up.

His laugh dies as she gets so close that it’s hard to breathe. As her brown eyes search his, she stretches on her toes and presses the lightest of kisses on his lips. He doesn’t hesitate to thread his hands into her hair, trying to press them together as close as possible. It’s the first kiss where they’re sober, not in immediate danger, or it’s an accident. They part for air to breathe for as little as possible, afraid that it’ll break the spell that they’re under.

Reluctantly, Amy breaks the kiss entirely and she stares up at him again, seeing how his eyes are closed like he’s dizzy. _Now, she has to tell him now_.

“I, uh –” he starts.

She cuts him off. “I’ve been gone, not because of Emma, but because of something else. I – I’m just – I wanna tell you . . .” as confident as she was after the kiss, it’s starting to quickly wear off, “Listen, what I’ve been trying to say is that I’m –”

All of a sudden, everything clicks for him. “Pregnant. Right? That’s what you want to say?”

Whatever else she wanted to say dies on her lips. His blue eyes desperately search hers, as if it’s a joke and he’s still waiting for the punchline.

“Yes,” she says finally. She can’t even look at him anymore.

“And you’re positive it’s mine?”

Amy’s head shoots up so fast she almost gets hit with vertigo. “Well, who else could it belong to Jonah?” The shame flips fast into anger.

“Well, I mean, I don’t know?” Jonah tries to form words, but it all comes out a jumbled, garbled mess.

She widens her eyes at him, waiting for him to answer his own damn question. She decides to help him out. “I haven’t been with anyone else since the Golden Globes.”

He stares down at her stomach and he can almost see her baby inside of her. Their baby. Oh, God.

“Before you ask anything else, let me just say that if you want to be a part of the baby’s life, then I won’t say no. If you don’t want to, that’s fine too. I can leave, and never come back.”

He looks up when she gives him her ultimatum. It’s not really an ultimatum since he has multiple options, but either choice feels final. He doesn’t know what to do, what to say – it should be straightforward if everything else was, but it’s not. He has Kelly. Kelly, who he thought was pregnant and almost entertained the thought of them being together that way. But now? Now he feels like he’s caught in a tornado and there’s no way out.

“I . . . need to go.” He starts to walk out of the room, pauses, and turns around like he’s about to say something.

“You know what? Nevermind,” he says, about to walk out again. Pauses, turns, and stops himself from saying what he was about to say.

This time, he keeps walking and Amy is just standing there, the knot in her throat now about to strangle her.

_Now what am I supposed to do?_

 

*

 

The avoiding tactics are even worse than after the drunk sex. Amy purposely avoids any shifts with Jonah, or even working in the aisle closest to him. At first, he’s relieved at the lack of contact as it gives him time to think, but as the days turn into weeks, it’s beginning to feel ridiculous. When he goes into the break room, she finishes whatever it is that she’s doing and leaves. When he goes into Glenn’s office, if she’s in there, she’ll say that a customer or employee needs her and that she has to go. Amy’s the first one at Cloud9 and the first one to leave. After all the thinking that he’s done, he feels ninety-eight percent ready to give her an answer but there’s no way to give it to her when she’s _avoiding_ him like this.

On Friday, he doesn’t see her leave before anyone else. He actually doesn’t see her leave at all. He hangs around the store even after closing and doesn’t see her at all. Quietly, he wanders the aisles, hoping that he’ll stumble upon her and tell her everything he wants to say. When he hits the camping section, he sees a small light glowing in one of the family-sized tents. Hoping that it isn’t a random, crazy patron who decided to live in the store, he crouches down and unzips the material.

All of the noises, all of the self-doubt that had been clouding his head for weeks becomes silent when he sees her lying there, back to the floor. He glances up and notices how she watches the white Christmas lights strung up around them, like little twinkling stars.

“You found me,” she says, her tone neutral.

“What’s up?” he replies, nonchalant. He slowly moves into the tent and lays down next to her, but leaves enough distance between them that he doesn’t spook her off.

“Just needed some time to think. You?”

“Same. Nice place you got here, though. You’ve really made it home-y.” She laughs at the joke and he can’t help but smile when he looks at her.

She begins to make moves to leave the tent when his hand shoots out to hold hers in place. She looks down at them, transfixed.

“I broke up with Kelly.”

Amy doesn’t say anything, all the air stolen from her lungs. He takes it that she’s letting him continue.

“It happened a few weeks ago when I finally decided what to tell you. I mean, you probably would’ve noticed all the death glares she’s been giving me since then if you would’ve worked with me, but that’s besides the point. Listen, I’m here because I want to answer your ultimatum –”

“It’s not an ultimatum,” she whispers, refusing to look away from their hands.

“Okay, not-ultimatum. I’ve done a lot of thinking and I . . . I don’t want you to leave. I don’t know what I’d do because I’m in love with you,” he says, all in one breath. She finally looks up at him, searching his eyes.

“Jonah, I –”

“And I wanna be there for the baby. Our baby. I know this probably isn’t the way it’s supposed to go – we’re supposed to meet first, then date, and then the rest of the stuff that follows, but that’s just how we are. And I won’t argue. I’m in love with you Amy Sosa and I want to be part of that baby’s life. If you’ll have me.”

The smile that spreads onto her face is absolutely radiant as she leans over to hug him. He can’t help himself but lean into her, but only halfway. He lets her decide if she wants to kiss him or not, but the answer is almost too obvious.

It starts slow, kind of like the warehouse kiss, but they know they can take all the time in the world. But it changes, suddenly the tentative kisses not being enough. Amy struggles to unbutton his shirt as he tries to slide her out of her blouse. When he sits up, she moves to straddle him, moving her hands up his stomach, his chest, and she feels him shiver. His breathing is hard on her neck and she feels so high-strung that she’s about to burst.

Amy moves her hand to the front of his pants, trying to help him out of it, when she feels him straining against the fabric and she feels his breath hitch against the swell of her breast. Teasing him, she pushes up against him and he groans, his teeth lightly scraping her. She runs her hands through his hair and pushes his lips against hers again. He tastes like that mint gum he’s always chewing and she’s heady with the scent of him.

Jonah moves so that he’s on top of her and helps her shrug out of her pants and it’s almost just skin against skin and Jonah presses desperate kisses against every inch of her skin when he pauses for a second, just as he’s about to slide into her.

“Oh wait, I don’t have any condoms –”

“It’s fine, it’s fine, I’m already pregnant so it’s whatever.”

“Right! Right, okay here we go.” The words come out in a rush. Jonah slides into her, and when she arches against him, exhaling the breath she didn’t know she was holding, she sounds so good and it’s making him go crazy.

When she shifts against him, he can’t help but kiss her collarbone, sucking the skin on her neck. _Hope she likes hickies_. When they rock against each other, him pulling and pushing out of her, Jonah remembers that drunken night after the Golden Globes. He couldn’t stop thinking about it afterwards, as much as he needed to forget because of Kelly. For years, he’d been pining after Amy, wondering what it would be like to taste her skin, to have her moan his name. The amount of nights he stayed up thinking about it would be embarrassing to say aloud. That night months ago was the closest thing. But now, both of them being sober and being fully aware of her in his arms made him think repeatedly how much he loved her.

“I love you,” he says out loud, testing the waters.

“I love you so much,” she whispers against him, moaning his name right after. He shivers.

He waits for her to cum, her breath shaking, before he follows, riding out the orgasm together. He pulls out, but they don’t separate themselves, only pushing their bodies closer.

When they lay next to each other, he traces circles on her thighs. In that moment, the only things that exist are themselves, the baby sitting in between them, and the lights, flickering in and out like falling stars.

 


End file.
